I would like to evict Activision, specifically Bobby Kotick, for the way they have been treating their developers and IPs the past few years. The latest debacle involving Infinity Ward is just the final straw that breaks the camels back.
These developers made Activision hordes of cash and the only thanks they get is to make the same game over and over again or else. Let’s list some of Kotick’s mistakes…..
Buys Red Octane instead of Harmonix, giving Neversoft the GH franchise instead, who were at the time known for skating games. This cleared the way for MTV to purchase Harmonix and strike a publishing deal with EA (which is up soon), thus creating Rock Band which Activision scoffed at the idea of a full band game before it’s success then turned around and made GH: World Tour. Neversoft has now been downsized, Red Octane no longer exists though it’s founders have stuck around, and the developer of the DS GH games is now the console developer as well.
Infinity Ward, founded after splitting off from the group that made the original Medal of Honor games for EA, signs a deal with Activision and makes Call of Duty 1, which did ok, then 2, which did great. They fight with Activision to make a game set in modern times, Activision scoffs at that idea, says it will never work, blah, blah, blah….IW wins that battle, makes game, it sells millions, so Activision then says what a great series, let’s make one every other year now. They make the second one which breaks records in sales, but IW now wants to do something else with the series or maybe even a new IP, so it’s 2 head honchos are fired for insubordination because they don’t want to make the game Activision wants them to.
So now we have a Treyarch (World at War) CoD game coming this fall and an action-adventure game from Sledgehammer Games, a new outfit formed by a group that left the Visceral Games (Dead Space). The irony is that these guys left EA because they didn’t want to churn out sequels. What’s left of IW will be making the map packs for MW2 this year and possibly an unannounced title in the CoD series. Rumors have been out that they may try to make some type of subscription type service for the CoD games, ala World of Warcraft.
Activision knows how to run it’s IPs into the ground. Name me one new game, besides Blur, that isn’t CoD, a Hero game of some sort, or Tony Hawk. It’s like the old EA reincarnated, who closed down prestigous studios Origin (Wing Commander, Ultima), Westwood (Command and Conquer, Lands of Lore), and Bullfrog (Syndicate, Populous, Dungeon Keeper). The EA now as of late, at least tries new IPs to broaden it’s portfolio of games. Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge are the first that come to mind. The sports games that EA put out are exempt from being considered because the licenses require them to put out yearly games of each.
I wonder what will happen if everyone finally tires of all the Activision yearly sequels then where will they turn or should I say which company will they poach next? The company I feel sorry for the most, besides Infinity Ward, is Blizzard who unfortunately has their names associated with Activision. Blizzard actually cares about their product and consumers whereas Activision is only concerned with it’s bottom line.
Idiots. Sucks for gamers too. Hopefully the IW guys will land somewhere good where they can bring out good games and be rewarded. I hope they don’t bring a subscription service to cod. Well written.
If you have GameInformer magazine, there was an interview with BK in the February 2010 issue (I think)…He makes himself look like a tool (imo) in the interview and it seems that it’s just lucky underhandedness that helped raise him to the top.
However, I don’t know if it’s so much him or the big mean machine of corporatism…but regardless of whose exactly at fault, yes I agree. I think Activision does more than run IPs into the ground…they ride them till the IP horse is dead…continue riding it hoping it might jump back to life, then sell the rotted horse meat, and ttthhheeen stomp it into the ground.
In the end I hate it when big corporations are in it for the little guy’s money. I think Activision and EA are the two worst companies that do this. To me, it seems the people running them don’t have the passion for video games and only look at things with a dollar value on them. But the ugly truth is that many of the smaller, “do-it-cuz-we-love-it” developers don’t have enough financial backing to make it…so it’s almost a necessary evil
…I am inspired by the rise of popularity of Indie Games though…seems to give more power to the little guys and their creativity without the price jack of a big corporate office…I wonder how long that will last?
Don’t forget the fact that the IW heads were due fat royalty checks for MW2 which have not been paid yet. Kind of a convenient time to fire them for insubordination. This whole mess stinks for everyone – Activision, IW, and gamers.
Look for the IW guys to land at EA since Activision just hired away the two heads from EA’s Visceral who made Dead Space. The two guys who are now heading up Activision’s Sledgehammer Games and will now be working on – you guessed it – a Call of Duty game.
It’s all a horrible soap opera.
I just read this article on the current Activision fiasco:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6252956.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;8
I know there are two sides to a story and that you have to look at the source. Both sides will most likely be exaggerating comments about the other and skewing the truth…I’m sure somewhere in between them there is a thin line of truth on both sides…but very hard to find in all the mud. However, if their statement is true I think Activision just might think itself a new gazpacho.
I read about the lawsuit a couple of nights ago. I agree that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle but in this case, the middle is still pretty freakin’ bad. You can read some of what they claim and believe Activision is capable of doing that, which is a PR problem for them given their recent business decisions.